The AI + Design wave has arrived: Making sense of the 2026 AI + Design Report
Summary
Launched just a few weeks ago, AI in Design 2026 is one of the largest studies to date examining how AI is reshaping design teams, craft, and tools. Published by Designer Fund and Foundation Capital, the report explores questions many design leaders and practitioners are asking right now: Which AI tools are seeing the most adoption? How are design workflows evolving? Are hiring expectations and team structures changing in meaningful ways? In this session, Ben Blumenrose will unpack the report’s key findings and discuss what they may mean for the future of design. The research draws on survey responses from more than 900 designers across 60+ countries, alongside in-depth interviews with the design teams at Anthropic, Framer, Linear, Notion, Shopify, Sierra, and Stripe.
More Videos
"When innovation cuts directly at people’s control over their work, fear and hesitancy are inevitable."
Steve BatyBreaking Out of Ruts: Tips for Overcoming the Fear of Change
June 9, 2016
"Regenerative design is about healing and nourishing instead of exploiting and destroying."
Meghan Hellstern Joanne DongThe Next 100 Years of Civic Design: How Might We Better Rise to Meet the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow?
December 10, 2021
"We need to build connective tissue—shared taxonomies and relational schemas—to tie UX knowledge together."
Emily DiLeo Maria TaylorStronger Together: Lessons Learned from UX Research Ops
September 24, 2024
"Our job as leaders is not just running the design function, but transforming the entire company culture."
Bob BaxleyTheme 4: Intro
January 8, 2024
"You want to code once and reuse components consistently for better UX; inconsistent skip-to-content links are a classic accessibility failure."
Sheri Byrne-HaberThe Importance of Accessible Design Systems
January 8, 2024
"Systems thinking for enterprise UX is like doing research and design on ourselves, our colleagues, and our work."
Boon Yew ChewMaking Sense of Systems—and Using Systems to Make Sense of the Enterprise
June 6, 2023
"You need to be the connector between people trying to drive decisions and others influencing them."
Nathan CurtisBeyond the Toolkit: Spreading a System Across People & Products
June 9, 2016
"Service design projects often last two to three years and necessitate ongoing stakeholder collaboration."
Cornelius RachieruHandling Complexity: Framing a Scale of Design
June 9, 2021
"Diagrams help when we feel stuck—providing stability, transparency, understanding, clarity, and kindness."
Abby CovertStuck? Diagrams Help
October 27, 2022
